The Official Blog

FAQ

You can see the whole lot of the books that I have out on the novels page. I’m now working on the third book in the Raven Cycle, and have just finished SINNER, a companion book to the Shiver Trilogy (coming out 2014). I’m slowly picking at Requiem, the third and final book in the Books of Faerie series. I’m collaborating on a book about the writing process and revision with Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff. And of course I also have short stories available for free at Merry Sisters of Fate: www.merryfates.com.

All of the trailers feature music composed by me. The songs are available for free download on the respective books’ pages in this site. Feel free to download for your listening pleasure and for any non-commercial purpose. For fan videos, please credit me with a link back to my site.

You can sing them all you like so long as you don’t try to sell them or mass-produce them (I realize this removes most of the fun from it). The rights to the lyrics belong to me and to Scholastic and the only versions of Summer Girl, etc., that are out there on iTunes have been approved by both of us. So, singing them in the shower = good. Singing them at your local gig = bad.

I’m happy to visit schools, libraries, and book clubs, and have a variety of programs and workshops for groups of all sizes and age ranges. For school visits queries, contact my school visit coordinator. And for all other visits, contact my publicist.

I will sign a bookplate for you if you send me a self-addressed-stamped-envelope at the address listed on the question about writing me a letter (up at the top!) It often takes a very, very long time for me to do them as I get a lot of requests and I’m also doing things like sleeping and writing books, so please don’t stalk me on Twitter asking if I’ve sent it yet or plan on the bookplate arriving in time for a loved one or pet’s birthday. Also, I can’t sign books as that means I need a special trip to the post office. Only bookplates, I’m afraid. And the self addressed stamped envelope is important!

Um, usually, no. I have the publication dates for the foreign editions as I get access to them, but it’s hard for me to say where the English-language edition will show up in any given country. I will update foreign edition info as it comes to me; if you have date or title information that’s missing from the Shiver page, a quick email with that info would be much appreciated. Otherwise, I recommend checking out the foreign editions page for each novel — most of them have links to publishers or more information, and can answer questions about multiple titles.

You can read all about my favorite books on my Goodreads page and my Shelfari page. I put only my absolute favorite books on Goodreads, usually with a review, but I put everything that I read on my Shelfari page.

I’m afraid that review copies are out of my hands. Especially in this economy, review copies are limited and my publishers decide who is eligible for one based upon the popularity of the review venue; I am blissfully unaware of the algorithms and machinations of review copies. Reviewers should direct all requests to the appropriate publisher (Flux for the Lament series, Scholastic for Shiver). If you’d like to be considered as a potential review venue, please send your requests along with your physical mailing address, your blog visit statistics, and a little bit about the popularity of your blog to tradepublicity@scholastic.com for the Shiver series or publicity@fluxnow.com for the Lament series.

Sam and Grace’s story is finished: There’s more about the ending here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApB_kgtJGI0
SINNER, a companion book to the trilogy set in L.A., came out July of 2014. It’s a standalone and — I think — the last time I’ll be returning to this world.

The Scorpio Races has been optioned by Katzsmith Productions, and they are in the process of engaging a screenwriter. Optioning means that they’re looking at assembling all of the movie parts, but it’s all very tenuous and at any time it can perish.

The Raven Boys has also recently been optioned, this time by New Line/ Warner Bros.

Shiver was optioned, but the producers and I had a difference of creative opinion and so I decided not to continue with it. It’s not to say it will never happen, but it’s definitely not on the books now. I would always rather no movie than a movie I don’t think my readers will appreciate, if it’s in my power (and with film, it isn’t often).

So, neither The Scorpio Races nor The Raven Boys has a release date (everything you see online to the contrary is lies and damn lies). No, they don’t have trailers (although some fans have very fine editing skills on YouTube). No, they are not yet casting. I get asked a lot if there are new developments. Trust me, if there were new developments, I’d be howling them from the rooftops. And by rooftops, I mean Twitter.

This is a long story, and I’ve tackled it in many, many interviews. For the story of Shiver‘s genesis and many other fascinating details about my life, I invite you to google “maggie stiefvater interview” and be amazed by the sheer number of them.

The answer to that is yes and really yes. I had songs in my mind when I wrote the lyrics, but then, after the books came out, I worked with two artists to create real versions of Sam’s “Summer Girl.” You can hear Jonas and Plunkett’s version here and Sulaiman Azimi’s here.

Unfortunately or fortunately, there is no Steven Slaughter. He was supposed to be one of Nuala’s first “pupils” and I took the liberty of writing some poetry for him (without the benefit of a psychotic music, I might add). There are no more to the poems than what you see there. There is a short story, however, about Steven here.

Scorpio just got optioned by Warner Bros/ KatzSmith Productions and I had a great and optimistic phone call with the producers. Remember what I said about optioning above, though. It’s early stages. And even with full speed ahead, it would be YEARS before the movie comes out. Did you guys see Hugo last month? Yeah, the book it was based on came out in 2007. Twilight the book was published in 2005. Twilight the movie appeared in 2008. Books-to-movies take a long time. I swear, I promise, I declare that if I get any new news, I will shout it.

No. That’s the short answer. The long answer is maybe when I’m 60 and feeling very nostalgic, I will write something called RETURN TO THISBY that won’t be as good as the original, but will please both me and lovers of Scorpio. But like I said. It’ll be in 30 years. I wouldn’t hold my breath. I’d very much like to return to the world, but wouldn’t unless I had a very definite story to tell.

I consider it a pretty steep compliment. So long as I’m acknowledged as the creator of the original characters and no money is being made on the derivative fiction, fanfic away! I am not, however, a fan of derivative works—i.e., fanfic where my writing is taken word for word with only the characters or minor details changed. Please don’t plagiarize!

Google is a godsend. Check out as many editor, agent, and author blogs as you can find — the internet is like a free crash course to the writing business and craft, available 24/7. There’s just not any excuse not to be well-versed in the writing world now. I’m afraid I don’t have time to answer specific writing questions via e-mail. If you leave writing questions on the blog as comments, I may tackle them in a group blog post at some point. I also have a very very broad description of getting published here.

Unfortunately, I can’t, mostly for legal reasons, but also because I only have time to critique the in-progress works of my two critique partners. If you want to find a critique partner, I have a match-up here.

I’m afraid that review copies are out of my hands. Especially in this economy, review copies are limited and my publishers decide who is eligible for one based upon the popularity of the review venue; I am blissfully unaware of the algorithms and machinations of review copies. Reviewers should direct all requests to the appropriate publisher (Flux for the Lament series, Scholastic for Shiver). If you’d like to be considered as a potential review venue, please send your requests along with your physical mailing address, your blog visit statistics, and a little bit about the popularity of your blog to BAmsel@scholastic.com for the Shiver series or publicity@fluxnow.com for the Lament series.

I generally don’t blurb, for practical and tedious reasons: Because of my travel schedule and writing deadlines, it’s both crazy and irresponsible of me to accept early copies of books to review . . . I just can’t promise to read anything in a timely manner. I’d rather not offer false promises.

I do, however, love to recommend books that I’ve found on my own time, so you can find all of those both on my Goodreads page and on my blog. Also I tend to go on and on about them on Twitter.

“Steve-Otter.” Like the name, “Steve,” and the little furry animal otter. Here is a musical guide to help you.

Hi, I'm Maggie Stiefvater

Professional novelist by day and artist by night. I live an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with my charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, and neurotic dogs. I’m the author of the Books of Faerie (LAMENT and BALLAD); the bestselling SHIVER trilogy (SHIVER, LINGER, FOREVER), and THE SCORPIO RACES.